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September272014

Immanuel Kant: An Overview Towards the end of his most influential work, Critique of Pure Reason (1781/1787), Kant argues that all philosophy ultimately aims at answering these three questions: “What can I know? What should I do? What may I hope?” The book appeared at the beginning of the most productive period of his career, […]

A church cantata by German composer Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750),
with the cantata chorale based on the Lutheran hymn "Wachet auf, ruft
uns die Stimme" ("Sleepers awake, the voice is calling") by Philipp
Nicolai. The text is based on the Parable of the Ten Virgins in Matthew
25:1-13, the reading of which is scheduled for the 27th Sunday after
Trinity in the Lutheran lectionary. This cantata was first performed in
Leipzig on November 25, 1731. Bach later transcribed the fourth movement
chorale for organ (BWV 645) and published it along with the Schübler
Chorales.

He comes.
The Bridegroom comes!
And Zion's daughter shall rejoice,
He hastens to her dwelling claiming
The maiden of his choice.
The Bridegroom comes; as is a roebuck,
Yea, like a lusty mountain roebuck,
Fleet and fair,
His marriage feast he bids you share.
Arise and take your lamps!
In eagerness to greet him;
Come! hasten, sally forth to meet him.

Zion hears the watchmen calling,
The Faithful hark with joy enthralling,
They rise and haste to greet their Lord.
See, He comes, the Lord victorious,
Almighty, noble, true and glorious,
In Heav'n supreme, on earth adored.
Come now, Thou Holy One,
The Lord Jehovah's Son!
Alleluja!
We follow all
The joyful call
To join Him in the Banquet Hall!

V. Recitative

So come thou unto me,
My fair and chosen bride,
Thou whom I long to see
Forever by my side.
Within my heart of hearts
Art thou secure by ties that naught can sever,
Where I may cherish thee forever.
Forget, beloved, ev'ry care,
Away with pain and grief and sadness,
For better or for worse to share
Our lives in love and joy and gladness.

VI. Aria (Duet)

[Soul] Thy love is mine,
[Jesus] And I am thine!
[Both] True lovers ne'er are parted.
[Soul] Now I with thee, and thou with me.
[Jesus] In flow'ry field will wander,
[Both] In rapture united forever to be.

'Then
the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps,
and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five
were wise. Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no
oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Now while the bridegroom delayed, they all slumbered and slept. But at
midnight there was a cry, "Behold! The bridegroom is coming! Come out to
meet him!" Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps. The
foolish said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are
going out." But the wise answered, saying, "What if there isn't enough
for us and you? You go rather to those who sell, and buy for
yourselves." While they went away to buy, the bridegroom came, and those
who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was
shut. Afterward the other virgins also came, saying, "Lord, Lord, open
to us." But he answered, "Most certainly I tell you, I don't know you."
Watch therefore, for you don't know the day nor the hour in which the
Son of Man is coming.'

November232012

Lyrics in German and English: see pdf at pp 16-17 or via links given in the song index at the bottom.

[...]

Handel's "nine German arias" (he wrote other arias in German, but this
is a discrete group) were written in the mid-1720s, long after the
composer left his native Germany for Italy and then booming Great
Britain. It is not known why he should have written music in German at
that late date, and the pieces have a quietly contented tone that sets
them somewhat apart from almost everything else in Handel's oeuvre. The
texts are by Hamburg poet Barthold Heinrich Brockes, whose so-called
Brockes-Passion had already been set by Handel a decade earlier. They
are religious but not exactly sacred -- spiritual in a personal way,
perhaps, with a good deal of nature imagery that is only lightly
reflected in the music. Instead Handel sticks to the da capo aria
pattern, forging a gentle language for the soprano soloist that evokes
the outlines of the Italian operatic aria but tones the whole thing down
to chamber dimensions.

November082012

//... The Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major (K.
488) is a musical composition for piano and orchestra written by
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was finished, according to Mozart's own
catalogue, on March 2, 1786, around the time of the premiere of his
opera, The Marriage of Figaro. It was one of three subscription concerts
given that spring and was probably played by Mozart himself at one of
these. The concerto is scored for piano solo and an orchestra consisting
of one flute, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns and strings. In
Mozart's later works the wind instruments are equal to the stringed
instruments, and this is also the case in this concerto. It has three
movements:1. Allegro in A major and common time.2. Adagio in F-sharp minor and 6/8 time (in later editions, the tempo is listed as Andante).3. Allegro assai in A and alla breve (in later editions, the tempo is listed as Presto). In Rondo form.The
first movement is mostly sunny and positive with the occasional
melancholic touches typical of Mozart pieces in A major and is in sonata
form. The piece begins with a double exposition, the first played by
the orchestra, and the second when the piano joins in. The first
exposition is static from a tonal point of view and is quite concise,
the third theme is not yet revealed. The second exposition includes the
soloist and is modulatory. It is also includes the third previously
unheard third theme. The second exposition is ornamented as opposed to
the first exposition which is not. The second theme has harmonic
tension. This is expressed by dissonances that are played on the beat,
and then solved by an interval of a second going downwards. This is also
expressed in the use of chromatics in the melody and bass lines which
is a cause for harmonic tension, as the listeners anticipate the arrival
of the tonic.The second, slow movement, in ternary form, is
melancholic and somewhat operatic in tone. The piano begins alone with a
theme characterized by unusually wide leaps. This is the only movement
by Mozart in F sharp minor. The dynamics are soft throughout most of the
piece. The middle of the movement contains a brighter section in A
major announced by flute and clarinet that Mozart would later use to
introduce the trio "Ah! taci ingiusto core!" in his opera Don Giovanni.
The third movement is a vigorous and cheerful rondo, shaded by moves
into other keys as is the opening movement (to C major from E minor and
back during the secondary theme in this case, for instance) and with a
central section whose opening in F sharp minor is interrupted by a
clarinet tune in D major, an intrusion that reminds us, notes
Girdlestone, that instrumental music at the time was informed by opera
buffa and its sudden changes of point of view as well as of scene. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------FREE .mp3 and .wav files of all Mozart's music at: http://www.mozart-archiv.de/FREE sheet music scores of any Mozart piece at: http://dme.mozarteum.at/DME/nma/start.php?l=2ALSO check out these cool sites: http://musopen.org/and http://imslp.org/wiki/ ... //

-----------------------------

Performers probably:

Sir Neville Marriner and﻿ Academy of St, Martin in the Fields with Alfred Brendel (recorded in the early 1970s)

March072012

A selection ( ~1h) of the numerous folk song settings by L.v. Beethoven - songs from
Scotland, Wales, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, German speaking regions, Poland, Russia,
Ukraine, Sweden; the 2 drinking songs in a German Volkslied style are B.`s own compositions probably from the early 1790s.

November232011

From harmony, from Heav’nly harmony
This universal frame began.
When Nature underneath a heap
Of jarring atoms lay,
And could not heave her head,
The tuneful voice was heard from high,
Arise ye more than dead.
Then cold, and hot, and moist, and dry,
In order to their stations leap,
And music’s pow’r obey.
From harmony, from Heav’nly harmony
This universal frame began:
From harmony to harmony
Through all the compass of the notes it ran,
The diapason closing full in man.